This first pic was in today's Gainesville Times down here in North Ga
Thanks for Fox 5 station we got this little taste
Good times were had by all as many lost power over night due to downed power lines and downed trees. The roads weren't so bad by this morning. The worst for us was having no power, aka no heat. 48 degrees is a wee bit chilly for a house. We had three hurricane lamps burning this morning in the mancave / Kitchen area. I hung up some heavy curtains over the archway door between the kitchen and dining room. This closed off that end of the house leaving less square footage for the lamps to heat. We have a Kerosene heater, but didn't get it out of the shed last night because we were caught by surprise. Yes! Unlike last year where we were the veritable pit crew of inclement weather preparedness, this year we slacked. In our defense, we watched the news like hawks trying to gauge what joyous weather event awaited us, rain or ice. We guessed wrong. Fortunately we keep matches, flashlights, batteries, lamps, lamp oils, etc for just such an occasion. In fact Dh had gone to the hardware store over the weekend to pick up a few things and we decided to replace the large flashlight we have "Just in Case". Good thing. It came in real handy. The one thing we didn't do was get out the Kerosene heater. Once we realized this was actually going to happen (cause you know had we been totally prepared it would have all been rain right?), we jumped into EVERY BODY GET A SHOWER! Not all at once mind you. That would be weird! I really quick boiled water for tea as well as heating our totally awesome old fashioned coffee thermos (you know the kind your dad would have taken to work in the 70's)for the coffee I then made. This would ensure hot coffee for in the morning. So Tea? Check. Coffee? Check. Showers? Check. Cleaned Kitchen? Check. "Babe where are the matches?" Dh calls out. "Here in the kitchen drawer" says I. I get them out. I then think to myself, "Okay, I made soups on Saturday, Breads on Sunday......I have no cookies!". Seriously people. No preparedness task is complete without cookies to keep you warm. Yes, Yes, Cookies do keep you warm. It is a scientific fact. Seriously....calories you know...generate heat? Uh...Never mind. Anyway. I get the chocolate chip cookies mixed, the oven preheated, they're on the cookie sheet and........Out goes the power. On goes the lamps for a bit. Fortunately it went out right before bed time. We were able to add blankets to the beds to be snuggly warm over night. We awoke to a meat locker for a home. I managed eggs and biscuits on the grill. We had coffee, and the hurricane lamps kept our home from freezing totally. We still sat under blankets and shivered, and shivered, and shivered. We called the power company and found our power wasn't slated to be restored til tomorrow at noon. We had the option to sit and shiver, go to the shed and dig out the kerosene heater, or go out. We went out. We didn't care where as long as we had heat in the car. We all went out for lunch and then some window shopping. By this time the roads were passable with the danger mainly in falling ice and trees. We saw more snapped trees than I have ever seen before. It was an amazing sight. Another amazing sight were the power company trucks in our area. Yay! Within an hour of being home, we had power on and off. Within a couple of hours we had the heat on. Warmth never felt so good!
So here ends the saga of this years ice storm. Not my most frugal moment mind you, but we spent time together as a family, we were warm most of the time, and we turned something inconvenient to our advantage. So all in all not as bad as it could have been,
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